hummus hamos houmous hommos hommus

There are hundreds of reasons I love Village Papa; in the early days, the two primary reasons (besides his handsomeness) were his gorgeous cat, and his homemade hummus. Gush. xo. Seriously, the way to my heart was via the space in my stomach for homemade hummus. Now, thanks to His Handsomeness, that space is always full. xo

I have never been to the Middle East, so I can't confess to ever having eaten "authentic" "traditional" hummus, but I am a certified hummus addict, and there's one thing I know for sure: homemade hummus will always win out over store bought. The End. Seriously, even those batches I've made when there's 'nothing in the house' taste 1 million times better than the "best" pre packaged stuff. I should mention here that Village Papa taught me how to make 'his' hummus, and for the last ten years I've been tweaking the recipe to find one that's 'mine'.


Here's last night's version:

- dump 1 can of chick peas into a large colander and rinse under running water for about 2 minutes (yes, wasting water, but who wants chickpea can scum in their dip?)

- dump immaculately rinsed chickpeas into your food processor

- 2 generous tablespoons of tahini

- juice of half a lemon

- scavenge for garlic, none to be had [yell at self: never go garlic-less again, NEVER!!, scavenge for 'something tasty in fridge' find an unopened jar of sundried tomatoes in oil, yay, add 6 large tomatoes to mound of goodness BTW adding this type of flavour is very North American of us according to Chef Solomonov

- less than an 1/8 tsp of salt

- 1/4 cup of water

- generous olive oil, about 3 tablespoons

- flick machine 'ON' and let the miracle that is hummus happen for about 4 minutes

- turn 'OFF', unplug machine, taste test, pour into a handsomeish bowl, and serve with crackers, bread, crudites (raw veggie slices); save unused hummus and use as sandwich spread, to dollop over steamed veggies, or for kids' pasta


PS hummus can be spelt many different ways: hamos, houmous, hommos, hommus, hummos, hummous or humus